Spring has Sprung

[BigWI]

Thanks

They were sort of taken from the stands.

The home team dugout is a large building (50x30) with Bath rooms and concession stand built in . It has an area on top of the building that you can go and take photos.

[Erik]

What were your camera settings? (Exposure, Jpeg or RAW etc.)

[BigWI]

I have a canon 20D.

I had it set in sports mode, so the exposure varied from picture to picture, any one in particular?

I used a Canon 70-300 zoom lens

The first picture I posted was F/5 @170mm 1/1250 Sec. ISO 400

I take all Jpeg, Large format.

[Erik]

No that's cool. I just wanted to get a feel for your approach to taking these pics. Smart way to go . . .

Are these straight out of the camera, or did you need to tune these up in the PC afterwards? I ask because they look real good. -It seems that in a shooting environment like you had, RAW mode might not have done a better job. So shooting jpegs was a worthy time saver . . . Right now I am trying to figure out when to use RAW and when I can get the results I want with Jpeg mode . . . . RAW gives so much more power to you in the post-processing effort! But that's just it, it requires more attention post-exposure! -Kinda tough when you come home with hundreds of pictures from the day!

[BigWI]

The only editing I did was to reduce the resolution to 72 and size down to 600x400 to upload.

I don't have the time to spend post processing unless there is good cause so I don't shoot RAW.

But I don't make a living at it either.

[*Chimper]

Originally Posted by BigWI

I have a canon 20D.

I had it set in sports mode, so the exposure varied from picture to picture, any one in particular?

I used a Canon 70-300 zoom lens

The first picture I posted was F/5 @170mm 1/1250 Sec. ISO 400

I take all Jpeg, Large format.

I have the same camera I love it. The 40d i hear is a really good upgrade but i still feel my 20d is doing the job fine

[BigWI]

I really like my 20D, but considered upgrading to the 40D for about 5 minutes.

I liked the idea for more pixals in case I wanted to blow something up larger then 8x10. Then I realized I have never done it before so why worry about something that probably will not happen.

I just couldn't justify the expense.

Plus my wife said no.

[*Chimper]

I think you made a wise choice only because you already had the 20d I would guess that if you went out to buy a camera today with out owning one you would of went for the 40d. Personally I think canon made a mistake making two models so good without making the owners of 20ds have anything to move up to with good reason.

[boomboom]

Some nice sports images of your son. I try to catch the pitcher with the ball as his hand is coming over the top with the pitch as I I think it makes a good image (and you can see the ball). I also often shoot with his leg lifted for the wind-up like you did in the last of the pitching images, and if I'm feeling froggy I try to get one with the ball just as it leaves his hand. Together those three images tell a complete story. The last image of the ball coming out of the hand is the hardest to capture, but pitchers usually give you lots of opportunities to practice!
Raw works well for sports images too, though it does take up more space on the card, takes longer to transfer, and requires more post-processing. Pluses are more flexibility in post, including a better dynamic range than Jpeg. If you have a large card (say 4 gig) you can do Raw+Jpeg, but otherwise it's convenient to just shoot Jpeg.

[BigWI]

Thanks for the comments BoomBoom.

The main reason I bought the 20D over the Nikon was the 5fps vs 3fps for the Nikon.

I usually press the shutter as soon as the pitcher starts his motion and continue until the ball is on its way. I do this for a couple of pitches in a row and generally get what I am looking for.

Generally I don't like to spend the time post processing the pictures so I take JPG. Recently my youngest sons team made it to the DIII world series. We ended up taking 4000 pictures over 3 days. If those were all RAW, I would have a ton of work ahead of me. By taking JPG, I burned a DVD (actually 3 DVD's) for each of the players.

I really like the shot with the pitcher just releasing the ball. I have attached a copy of a picture with my 2 sons (Very low quality).